Never heard about hugelkultur, but, that's pretty much what I did when making my patio stone raised beds. We had tons and tons of huge poplar after a windstorm, cut into two foot lengths, and stacked,,,for what, I'm not sure.

I put the biggest logs in the bottom, then another row, of smaller logs, then the black earth. I did it, simply to displace some soil, otherwise, it would have taken way too much soil to fill a bed 4 ft wide, by 8 ft long, and 2 ft high. Now, I top it off just a bit every year, with black earth and manure.

Still have a ton of the poplar logs, but, my get up and go got up and left!

Had about 25 old patio stones, stacked near the shed, for 7 years; they used to be under one of those 12 ft x 4 ft kiddie pools we had for the grandchildren. Didn't know what to do with them, till Brenda posted a picture of her raised beds; the kits come from Lee Valley tools; and, they're easy peasy to put up; the hard part was lifting the stones.

I have three of them, and they are positioned to screen my junky looking sheds and the area where I keep the tiller, the riding lawn mower, wheelbarrow, and the composters.

This is the same bed, about 3 months later! My intention was to paint the concrete, and put a contrasting color of the plastic lattice over the stones,,but,,didn't happen yet!

Great to see your raised beds again Lulu. Oh my, your Brugs are glorious!I may put a couple of Brugs in one of my raised beds this year. I've really cut down on what I'm growing. Only 10 x 2 tommytoe plants this year, so I should have enough room.

Marc: Here's a pic taken on 30 May 2010, the day I planted the tom seedlings in my raised beds. We chose the red-coloured slabs as our house is red brick.

We'd just moved house so had loads of very heavy cardboard containers. The beds were put directly over lawn, a very thick layer of cardboard and a few logs were put in the bottom, and then we had a load of topsoil delivered. One of the best presents my children and husband ever gave me. They put it all together and filled it up!!

BTW - before filling we lined the beds with landscape fabric to stop the soil from leeaching out. It has worked beautifully.

They really are great. I have a very dodgy back but find the beds pretty easy to take care of. The soil in them warms very quickly in spring. There are no weeds to speak of, and the few that try are easily plucked out! Like Lulu I top up with some compost and good soil each spring. In the fall I throw a pile of mulched leaves into each bed. I also bury kitchen waste until the ground starts to freeze. By the time spring comes around it's all composted!

~BBQ

Zone 5bSouth/Central Ontario

Every day may not be good, but there's something good in every day ~ Author Unknown

Holy moly, slabs like those are constantly being given away for free on Kijiji in my area I am totally gonna have to think about converting my 4 raised veggie beds to this style, love it love it love it! In fact I gave away probably 25-30 of them myself just last year to my new neighbour, sigh. Not much chance I can hop the fence and pull them out from under her new gazebo, ya think?

Lulu, those poplars in the bottom of yours are breaking down and providing so much yummy soil goodness, as well as helping with water consumption I bet, so cool.

Bah, it's only May and my mind is on fire with plans for 2013 now bwahaha...

“The average person is still under the aberrant delusion that food should be somebody else's responsibility until I'm ready to eat it.” - Joel Salatin

Can't find my 2011 pics,,but, here's some pics from 2010, (already posted here at some time) that shows the raised beds in the background, and does not show my messy sheds (you can see the roofline only). There are two positioned in one direction, and another going the opposite direction, to form an "L"; there is a pathway, large enough for the riding lawnmower to get thru, to get to the sheds, and another one, to get into the greenhouse.

There is a work area, behind the one I posted first, that cannot be seen when coming into the yard.

It was all about screening off the less than desirable areas, from the entrance to the side yard, and from the vantage point of sitting in the gazebo. It meets these requirements, and more.